Millie Benson

The Women's Darkroom + Gallery is pleased to present Soul Retrieval, a solo exhibition by Millie Benson. This is Benson’s first show at the gallery and her second in New York. Benson resides in Brooklyn and has an MFA from Hunter College-City University of New York.

In this work Benson uses the idea of packaging and containment to engage with themes such as mortality, motherhood, transformation, and metamorphosis as they relate to the human

body.

Benson’s process began by taking photographs of her body, printing them, cutting and folding the images into box-like

shapes. This abstraction of the female figure became a way to explore the body in a non-figurative and non-sexualized way. The boxes reference the way we organize and compartmentalize our lives, creating packages for objects and ourselves. Grotesque forms of containment such as prisons, walls, and cages, co-exist with beautiful aspects of the womb.

Benson’s use of the cube engages with the representation of the square throughout art history. The folded images of the female body in the maquettes serve as a reinterpretation of Leonardo di Vinci’s Vitruvian man. Benson studied Ad Reinhardt’s Black Square Paintings, and the influence of his compositions shows in the divisions and foldings of the photographs.

Included in the show are large-scale photographs, paintings, and sketches of the constructed forms. The original box-like maquettes and materials used to make them are on display in a vitrine, along with process notes and sketches. The show is a collection of visual markers and constructed spaces which allow for the immaterial and inspirational aspects of human existence to present itself in new ways.

The gallery has produced a limited-edition catalog to coincide with the show. The catalog is 5x7”, 26 pgs., perfect bound with 100 numbered copies.